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Nurse Ratched's Place
Racial Profiling: The Ghost of Nurse Aiko Hamaguchi
Portrait by Ansel Adams, 1943 My mother told me to never talk about religion or politics in public. She said it is impolite, but I have to speak up. The woman in this picture is Nurse Aiko Hamaguchi. Look at her closely. Nurse Hamaguchi is the face...
New Year’s Resolutions and Nursing Jobs
This nurse looks like she’s charting, but she might be fooling you. Perhaps she’s writing down her New Year’s resolutions. I’ve noticed a lot of nurses doing that around this time of the year when they are at work. The number one resolution during a bad shift...
Best Video Ever For Breast Cancer Awareness
I found this video over at Diary of a Trauma Nurse. The video was done at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. Put your dancing shoes on. It’s time to boogie! Best Video Ever For Breast Cancer Awareness – Nurse Ratched's Place Best Video Ever For Breast...
It looks like the girls have been busy cooking Christmas dinner for their patients in the hospital kitchen. Really. Some hospitals will do anything to save a buck. Anyway, it looks like everyone is having fun. Wishing you happy holidays from Nurse Ratched’s Place. Happy Holidays in...
Al Franken Shuts Down Joe Lieberman on the Senate Floor
Priceless……… Al Franken Shuts Down Joe Lieberman on the Senate Floor – Nurse Ratched's Place Al Franken Shuts Down Joe Lieberman on the Senate Floor – Nurse Ratched's Place...
Politicians Meddle with Iowa’s Mental Health System.
I took this picture a couple of years ago during a trip to Iowa. This is the old Clarinda Asylum for the Insane. The name was changed for obvious reasons a long time ago to the Clarinda Treatment Complex. I grew up in Iowa, so let me tell...
Keith's Blogs
The Adventures of Bob The Nurse
A male nurse action figure with too much time on his hands....
Miscellaneous writings by a nurse with too much time on his hands....
The photographic adventures of a peripatetic nurse and his trusty smart-phone....
The latter day life and times of Sparkey the Dog....
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allnurses: A Nursing Community for Nurses
March Banner Informational Session
Hi All, I was wondering if any of you were planning to attend the March Banner informational......
Anyone applied to this program? I'm afraid HCC has made a mistake with my application. My profile......
Listing colleges on your resume.
I have a quick question: I am in an ADN program. It's hard to describe. You finish an LPN......
just got ARU position advice tips
I have worked on a critical care stepdown for the last yr and have mostly dealt with patients in......
How to request Quality/Core Measure forum???
How do you request a new forum? I would love to see a Quality Measures/Core Measures forum. I......
Hospital clinicals next week...need some advice
Hi, I have 3 months left in my practical nursing school. We have been in nursing homes thus far,......
Jonathan Rosenfeld's Nursing Homes Abuse Blog
Children In Nursing Homes: Truly The Most Vulnerable
Many families are forced to institutionalize their disabled children in nursing homes because of many states don’t have the resources to pay for in-home care. This puts parents in the difficult position of funding expensive home care on their own or having their child live in a nursing home, surrounded by...
Even The Most Mundane Parts Of A Nursing Home Can Turn Deadly Without Proper Staff Supervision
Despite the glimpse of warmer temperatures that are (hopefully) around the corner, many nursing homes and long-term care facilities have their heating systems working at full force. Unfortunately, many of these facilities were constructed at a time when radiant heating systems were state of the art. The danger radiators and portable...
“When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.” - Chinese Proverb At employee at St. Anthony Health Care Center in St. Paul, MN failed to follow these words of wisdom when she failed to follow the fall...
A news story regarding a 12-hour delay in obtaining medical treatment for an injured patient caught my attention-- not necessarily due to the horrible injuries the patient sustained-- but due to the staffs' sluggish response to the injured patient with two broken legs and a fractured shoulder. The 76-year-old patient fell...
Nursing Home Spotlight: Shelbyville Rehab & Health Care Center
Shelbyville Rehab & Health Care Center has 80 certified beds and a one-star (much below average) Medicare rating. The facility is located in Shelbyville, IL. Although the facility only had five health deficiencies between 9/1/08 and 11/30/09, a significant abuse incident (see below) occurred in 2009, which led to the...
Shesshh.... Don't let the violent offenders living amongst innocent nursing home patients in Illinois know that the Attorney General and local police agencies may soon be hunting them down! Seriously, as Illinois gets ready to introduce new nursing home safety bills, law enforcement facilities have announced a renewed push to track...
Lessons in Nursing
Over the past 7 years, I have become more aware of how the medical industry is just like every other major corporation out there, in it for the money. I am not talking about insurance companies, because we are all aware of how their first priority is their bottom line....
I have recently accepted a new position in a brand new clinic opening in South Denver called Denver CyberKnife. It is exciting as it is a new learning experience for me and will be a challenging new role as CyberKnife Coordinator. This is a disconnect from everything I have been...
“Is this going to be on the test?”
I was lecturing recently, and the students are frantically writing down notes until a student raises their hand and asks this question. I give an answer indicating that it probably won’t be on the test, but it is good information to know, and what do I see? Everyone putting their...
As a nursing instructor, I always find myself asking my students ‘why’? And I always have a problem with the answer. Because someone told me to do it that way. This is the heart of nursing and also the downfall of many nursing schools. If you can answer the question...
Just graduated from nursing school? Now find a job…
Finding a job in nursing is different from most of the other job hunts out there. As a new grad, you are just excited to get out there are get working (after you pass your boards of course). Just keep in mind these few things when looking for a job...
The Story that started it all…
I got a viral infection when I was 12 years old that landed me in the hospital for a short time. During that stay, I encountered doctors and nurses at their best, and this experience changed my focus in life. After recovering from my illness, that summer I broke child...
Lost on the Floor
You know it’s going to be a good night when you ask your 80 year old female patient how they’re doing and she looks up at you and says, “I feel kind of raunchy.” “What do you mean?” I ask. “Right here,” points at stomach, “The food here is terrible, I just...
Our observation unit is lovingly called the Hooper Annex (Hooper is our local detox unit) as not a day goes by that we don’t have at least 1 in with ETOH-related issues. But we get dumped on, a lot. Usually it’s because the docs can’t or won’t make up their...
Allow me to indulge a small self-pity moment… Went to the doc last week, looks like I have sleep apnea (my neighbors could tell you that), my asthma is worse that I thought, my vitamin D and testosterone are probably low, my cholesterol is (kind of) high, my CRP sucks and...
As nurses we see wacky, off and plain old disturbing lab values. But I think I saw a new record the other day: Hemoglobin 3.2 mg/dL, Hematocrit 13.2% The freaky thing? The patient was doing fine. Alert, well, they only spoke Russian, but they were fighting us. Vitals were great, pulse in...
What is it with docs and ordering C.Diff? Why is it that if a patient has diarrhea, the order a test for C.Diff? Some days it feels like they went to an in-service recently and all remembered that C.Diff causes diarrhea and now anyone with loose stool should be checked...
Was helping a colleague out with a chart check late one dark and stormy night and came across a progress note from the chaplain. Intrigued by the content and noting he was responding to an order in the system, I went searching for the order itself. A couple of pages...
Emergiblog
New Day at HIMSS With Better Health
It’s Day 2 of Better Health at HIMSS. Interviews are flying today! Dr. Val, Nick Genes and the venerable Dr. Anonymous are interviewing the latest and greatest in Health IT! Here is the live feed, you can also see it here: Free live streaming by Ustream New Day at HIMSS With Better Health New Day at...
It’s happening right now! The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference is going full blast in Atlanta and Better Health is on the scene, bringing us interviews and information from the latest in telemedicine/emedicine! The Ustream is live right now: Live Video streaming by Ustream Dr. Anonymous and Dr. Val are interviewing...
Well, this is creepy! It’s a photo from the Library of Congress‘ digital nursing collection. It looks like a still from a Hitchcock film. She’s going to the light…. Actually, she is probably going down to central supply for gauze. Wouldn’t be surprised if Rod Serling stepped into view… “Nurse Nell is about to take a...
Why Don’t You Just Become a Doctor?
Ah, the Nursing Olympics! Here we see the U.S Synchronized Study Team. The judge, visible at the end of the table, will look for uniform cap placement, the exact angle of the binders, the uniformity of handwriting and the perfect 90 degree angle of the elbows. Should they meet the stringent criteria, they...
Change of Shift is Up; Next Edition Taking Submissions!
The new edition of Change of Shift is up at Rehab RN! The next edition will be hosted at the Blog of the Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, also known as the INQRI Blog. The Initiative is associated with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The theme for this edition of Change of...
Nurse Jones was impressed with the NeoNatal App on her new iPad, but the device was much larger than she expected. I plan to get an iPad. I wonder if it comes with “wings”. Is the deluxe version called a Max-i-Pad? Sorry, I had to get my feminine hygiene jokes out of the...
Nursing Informatics Online
Cutting the cord. CIOs are leveraging wireless technologies to help nurses deliver patient care safe
Forum: Nursing Informatics Journal Articles Posted By: Nursing Informatics News Post Time: 03-03-2010 at 05:26 AM...
The Alliance for Nursing Informatics: A History.
Forum: Nursing Informatics Journal Articles Posted By: Nursing Informatics News Post Time: 02-26-2010 at 05:16 AM...
The new fundamentals in nursing: introducing beginning quality and safety education for nurses' comp
Forum: Nursing Informatics Journal Articles Posted By: Nursing Informatics News Post Time: 02-24-2010 at 05:10 AM...
Forum: Nursing Informatics Journal Articles Posted By: Nursing Informatics News Post Time: 02-18-2010 at 05:05 AM...
[Promoting nursing competitiveness: introduction to the digital divide.]
Forum: Nursing Informatics Journal Articles Posted By: Nursing Informatics News Post Time: 02-04-2010 at 05:08 AM...
Clinical practice corner: health information technology.
Forum: Nursing Informatics Journal Articles Posted By: Nursing Informatics News Post Time: 02-03-2010 at 05:34 AM...
Off the Charts
Notes from the Healthweb and Nursosphere
This week Not Nurse Ratched has a fascinating, amusing, meandering, and thoughtful post about the uses of Facebook by patients in the hospital. There’s a short excerpt below, but read the whole thing here. They update Facebook constantly. CONSTANTLY. They have us take photos of injuries they can’t reach so they...
Is This Teamwork? Learning to Supervise Isn’t Easy
By Sheena Jones, who attends Dutchess Community College and lives in Beacon, NY So I’m a young nurse, one of the youngest in my facility. I used to be a nurse’s aide; now I’m an LPN in training to be an RN. It’s very difficult when the aides are either the same...
‘Ask Me Three’: Engaging Patients to Promote Safety
By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN Next week, March 7–13, is Patient Safety Awareness Week. The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) has sponsored Patient Safety Awareness Week since 2002 to help promote awareness of patient safety issues among hospital staff, patients, and communities. This year’s campaign focuses on engaging patients in theior own care, and it...
Why the ‘Greatest Generation’ Is Bagging Groceries (No, It’s Not Because of Taxes)
By Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief In surfing the Web Monday, I came across this interesting tidbit on the blog run by Gary Schwitzer, creator of HealthNewsReview.org, a site devoted to assessing the accuracy of health news coverage. He quoted statistics from a report by the Center for Public Integrity, which...
Mississippi Midwifery Law Hoopla: Another Failure in Public Education?
By Gail M. Pfeifer, MA, RN, AJN news director It seems even when doctors and nurses unite on an issue, there’s controversy. The Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure and the Mississippi Board of Nursing (MBON) both support state bill No. 695, which would allow only certified nurse-midwives to practice midwifery...
. . . . What really struck me about the meeting, however, was the inability of Republicans to explain how they propose dealing with the issue that, rightly, is at the emotional center of much health care debate: the plight of Americans who suffer from pre-existing medical conditions. In other...
Nursing Ideas
Judith Oulton International Nursing Leadership and Perspectives on Health Human Resources
Judith Oulton Frances Bloomberg International Distinguished Visiting Professor – University of Toronto Sitting down with Judith Oulton, the former CEO of the Internaitonal Council of Nurses. We talk about her experience and how she came to the role and her current work on global health human resources. She is an incredible nursing...
Researching the Internationally Educated Nursing Work Force in Saudi Arabia – Joan E Mitchell
Joan E Mitchell MSN, EdD jemitchell [at] cbahi.org Nurse Consultant and Surveyor Central Board of Accrediation for Healthcare Institutions – Jeddah [googleMap], Saudi Arabi Sitting down with Joan Mitchell at the Sigma Theta Tau Conference in Indianapolis and discussing her work in patient safety and quality of care was very enlightening. After watching...
Peter Goossens Helping Patients Recognize Bi-Polar Symptoms
Peter Goossens RN PhD – email: p.j.j.goossens [at] saxion.nl Nurse Expert – Dimence – Map Professor in Mental Health – Saxion Senior Researcher – Radboud University Nijmegen Peter Goossens, a Dutch mental health nurse and researcher, and I sit down to discuss his research that helps bi-polar patients recognize on coming periods of mania...
Marla Salmon – Nursing an Entire Nation
Marla E Salmon ScD, RN, FAAN Dean & Professor – University of Washington School of Nursing A conversation with Marla Salmon ScD RN FAAN, current Dean and Professor at the University of Washington and former Chief Nurse of the United States of America. We discuss her experience working with Bill Clinton and...
Irmajean Bajnok Sharing Nursing Best Practice Around the World
Irmajean Bajnok RN PhD Director of International Affairs and Best Practice Guidelines – Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Sitting down with Irmajean Bajnok we discuss her experience and how she came to be Director of the IA-BPG. We talk about how the BPG came to be but also about how she hopes...
Sioban Nelson Learning from the History of Nursing
Sioban Nelson PhD Dean and Professor - Lawrence S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing After starting the MN at the University of Toronto, I have had a few readings from Sioban about understanding the history of Nursing. These articles really helped my understanding of nursing. Being young in the profession this historical analysis...
Two days to go…and still going nuts
Today I ran around like a crazy woman trying to get all the crap together for this trip. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, and a bit under prepared. I realized 2 things. 1. My greatest fear remains getting there and not knowing how to take care of my patients. I’m working...
I leave for Haiti on Monday. Actually, I just got my official “orders” today, err, flight information from the agency who’s sponsoring my visit. Let me start by saying that this is something I’ve wanted to do for years. In college (the first time…) I often tried to figure out what...
Please stay tuned for updates from…
I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Frankly, there’s been a ton of change in my life, and I’m still kind of adjusting to everything. On top of that, I just found out that I’ll be leaving for Haiti on Monday. I won’t be blogging while I’m down there,...
When I started as an ICU nurse, I was overwhelmed and stressed. Constantly. Having a preceptor made the pill easier to swallow, but when I came off orientation, I felt like I’d not only been hit by a metaphorical truck, but also tied to a railroad track and run over...
I am so impressed with the outpouring of support from the medical community after the Haiti tragedy. Wow, folks. Even at my dirty little city hospital, nurses are clamoring over each other to get down there with our own disaster relief crew. It seems that we nurses share a very...
Friends, Bee-bop on over to http://www.emergiblog.com and check out the lastest edition of Change of Shift! It’s been a long time since I contributed, so I appreciate being included (rather last minute) in this edition. Enjoy!...
Nursing Novellas
My day got off to a bad start. On the way to work, I pinched a nerve in my neck. It was excruciating. I couldn’t turn my head or lift my arm. In the office, I made my to-do list for the day and tried to figure out how and...
Santa Fe Chicken: A Tale of a Free Bird
My home state of North Carolina is one of the largest producers of poultry in the nation. There is a big packing plant near my home, and I often see trucks hauling broiler hens by the hundreds off to slaughter. Santa Fe Boulevard is a particularly precarious area for those...
I had lunch today at one of those delightfully tacky restaurants. Things were a little bit slow at this place, which I’ll just call Joe Schmoe’s. I think there were, at most, four tables occupied. How happy the wait staff seemed each time another one of those tables filled up! ...
My grandfather died around three o’clock on a Friday afternoon. My grandmother sat at his bedside, clutching his hands as he took his last breath. My father and uncle stood stoically in opposite corners of the room. They grieved in their own quiet way. My aunts sat at the foot...
(*Names have been changed) Her name was Teresa.* She hovered in front of the double doors each morning while waiting for the school bell to ring, always alone. Just like me. As an overweight kid with glasses, frizzy red hair, freckles and an albuterol inhaler permanently attached to my hand, I was...
Miracle: A short story by Amy Glenn Vega
MIRACLE A short story by Amy Glenn Vega The morning comes, and I awaken to the sound of heavy panting and the smell of kibble breath. I turn my head to find a big, black dog lying next to me. “DOWN!” I shout fiercely. He looks at me with sweet, pleading eyes. “I got you...
Nurse Practitioners in Business
Seems these days everyone has some sort of smart phone. We use them to manage our lives, keep us organized, keep in contact, share, and function better in the exam room (”second brain”). As a long time Palm OS user, I opted for the PalmPre last year. There were several reasons,...
Join us on Sunday, February 21, as we interview Louann Hart DNP, ARNP, FNP-BC, NP-C. Clinician, educator, and researcher, Dr. Hart’s focus for the past six years has been the assessment and management of chronic pain. As such, in November of 2007, Louann founded Partners in Healthcare, PLC, a...
Once a month, members of Nurse Practitioner Business Owner™ (NPBO™ ) have the opportunity to gather together to ask questions (and get answers!), brainstorm and just plain network. So many ideas come out of these gatherings, that I find it’s one of my favorite activities. Our next Q&A is Monday February...
Many Nurse Practitioners find the process of getting credentialed with Medicare to be confusing or downright frustrating. A few find their dealings with Medicare to be smooth and easy, but most of us are in the confusion camp. Here’s you chance to clear some of that confusion. The Centers for Medicare...
Nurse Practitioner Practice in Australia
Health care, delivered by Nurse Practitioners, in NP run clinics and offices is growing around the world. This is a good thing. We know there is a shortage of primary care providers and health care consumers need and want a choice in their providers. However, despite studies showing that NPs are...
Social Media Survey for Clinicians
Social Media is something that health care providers are talking about. So are the medical-legal folks! We @ NPBO ™ are working on information about how Nurse Practitioners and other clinicans can best use this media for communication and marketing – and do so in a safe and ethical manner...
This won't hurt a bit
20 weeks today. Which means that this little creature squirming around in my uterus is supposedly halfway cooked. Of course with Bobby, 20 weeks was over halfway, but we are counting on me staying pregnant a little longer this time. Or at least if this one comes...
Bobby and I have a game that I started back when he was a wee little newborn. We pretended to eat the each other. Like fingers or noses, etc. Of course for a long time I was the one who got to munch on his chubby little fingers and toes....
I'm amazing this time around by how much faster I am showing. Baby/uterus is barely above the pubic bone, but I've already had to break out the maternity tops. I avoided stretch marks with Bobby (helps if you only go to 37 weeks), but I think I look...
I took Bobby to a museum and to lunch with 2 other friends and their toddlers yesterday. He had a great time. I had a great time watching Bobby play with his friends and chatting with my friends. But there was a serious downer to the day which...
Got myself knocked up again. Approaching 15 weeks on Thursday, and due at the end of July. 9 days after Bobby's original due date, and about a month after his actual birth day. Let's see how close I make it this time. We made the decision to...
Dear Mr Limbo - I am sure that President Obama was just hoping praying for a huge, tragic natural disaster EXACTLY like the earthquake last week in Haiti just to help shore up his public image. He couldn't be providing aid because he actually cares about helping people,...